I decided to do some research and see if I could find any more shows, when I came across this fascinating NPR called The Root: Is There A Place For Black Actors On TV?. It highlights reasons why we don't see many black leads in television, many of which we discussed in class, as well as thoughts on if they will be a lead in the future.
The article, by Marcus Vanderberg, focuses on a network drama called Undercovers, which premiered, and ended, in 2010. Undercovers was supposed to be a hit running on NBC, with a great actors and an interesting plot line following two CIA agents, but instead, it flopped. But Vanderberg said; "When you throw in the fact that the show was in a bad time slot, featured subpar writing and two lead actors who were (gasp!) black, it's not surprising that NBC pulled the plug after less than two months." Yes, some of the issues he noted were "time slots" and "writing", but he puts a sarcastic "Gasp!" when noting that the two leads of the show were black. Vanderberg later states that television stations think airing a show with a black lead is a "gamble".
What's interesting it the fact that networks seemed to have "abandoned most of their black programming in order to appeal to a more mainstream audience". Clearly, television, like society, often pushes aside minorities for the "mainstream audience". But if we really wanted to relate to the audience, wouldn't being a CIA agent be more far off from the normal person, than a skin color? To really relate to the people, shouldn't shows focus on normal people? Why do we only see shows about top government officials, CIA agents, neurosurgeons and defense attorneys? Shouldn't there be shows about teachers, salesmen, waiters or plumbers?
This might be an excellent analysis to use for your TV Tokenism assignment.
ReplyDeleteDani, Nice post here and good breadth of topics across the term. I like the way you provide a link and then excerpt a relevant passage for your readers to focus on.
ReplyDeleteAs for your questions: (sadly) CIA agents are more compelling than shows about plumbers or teachers (I'm still waiting on those call-back!) because they have higher stakes. People die every show. That's why medical and cop shows proliferate. How else to keep people riveted for 20 minutes of commercials around which they base their shows? There is interesting info. out there somewhere about biological responses and advertising. Tension sells. The world could blow up at any minute, so I better buy that Toyota NOW.